HR – Adding Values and Delivering Business Results

Posted in Human Resources Articles, Total Reads: 3173
, Published on 30 January 2013

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With changing business environment, Human Resources have also evolved to a significant entity now. HR has evolved from Personnel Relation and there are a number of responsibilities that come with this title. With new responsibilities assigned, HR has stepped high to become a business partner and supplement business to achieve organizational goals. Certainly in many minds, the importance attached to HR is not concrete. The irony is that, even few stakeholders disagree to hold HR high. In a recent study conducted by The Hay Group with 1400 professionals reveals that only 34% of the respondents had the view that HR does make an impact in the business and plays a critical role in the business. Even among the management students fraternity there is a general notion that HR specialization can be opted since one loves social networking and above all the HR related subjects are easy to crack. But aren’t we running away from the fact that a HR professional needs to make employees competent & not to entertain them, has to add value and deliver business results strategically.

A change in everyone’s mind can be instilled by the intrinsic as well as extrinsic forces. The new role of Employee Champion and the associated interventions rightly ensures that the organization has a competitive advantage in terms of its workforce. And the new role would be supplemented if the associated deliverables should be quantifiable and should focus on a long term growth of the organization.

Working in silo is not the need of the hour. All the sub functions of HR should work in coordination. The concept of Cross Functional Teams (CFTs) has to be promoted within the HR functions and with other functions as well. The synchronization of T&D, Recruitment and Compensation & Benefit with Performance Management System has to create synergy. CFTs could be an aid to achieve this synergy. As we walk miles, CFTs could evolve into boundary less function as well.

A doctor has to speak in doctor’s language! Few HR jargons are employment law related, some meant to sooth employees and some words are exchanged to communicate with fellow practitioners. Many at time HR uses euphemisms when the truth sounds cold and scary. It is always good to keep things simple and easy to understand with HR professional interact with the workforce. In today’s time to an extent HR has been defamed because of the confusing many times complicated jargons.

A recent article published by Times of India quoted; about the morphed role of HR into number crunching business and handles both portfolios simultaneously. When it comes to vacancy of business leader, HR head’s chances are as good as a Finance Head or a Marketing Head. People strategies have to be aligned with the business imperatives

Among the student fraternity HR is not a famous specialization. One of the strong reason being the compensation offered by the business houses are low, compared to other specializations. The reason being that when it comes to sales, a candidate would be put directly in the field. And so would be the case in other functions as well. As a fresher one has to understand the nuances of HR because at the end of the day one would land working on human resources.

With these many cookies in the kitty, Human Resource stands all amidst of many challenges. Managing humans would be more inclined towards a skill and definitely it is an art. One has to carry the pride of managing the most precious asset. This vertical of the business would always be the back bone and its absence would cost us huge. The untold truth is “HR, Mother of the employees and Wife of the Management”.

This article has been authored by Elizabath Eappen from Loyola Institute of Business Administration (LIBA)